Nevada County picayune., 1887-10-13
A RACE AGAINST TIME,
i'Fe'iliiS are not always truo

"AH ialSe-a fact within ''e observation, if not cxpcrieuc, of everybody Of course I do m, refer to day y-dreams, nor the fan. c'es coWured mp by disorderec stomach.
 Let me transcribe a page or two ol my own experience, and judge TOT yourself whether shadows oI the impending future can be pro Jected Ill dreams.
 had been stationed on the mann llne of the great Central rail. way for something more than Il year, attending to all the day and night duties at that point with such an unfailing regularity that ha thought of possible acciden, had ever occurred to me. The duties were not especially ardnous, but the responsibility was far greater. There was an ex press day and night, both ways. for which the main line had to be always clear; a local express each way, which ran on the turnout and waited for the through train to pass; a mail train at night and morning which had right of way; one ordinary passenger. and halt dozen, perhaps, accommodation and freight,
 To see that the main line was al- ways closed at the proper moment, that the turnout was always ready when 1t should be, that the branch where the local made up was open, and, in short, that every. tmng was in condition for prompt and satisfactory working, kept me almost constantly at my post, though as l have already said, the duties were not especially arduous-
 In order to be handy to my bus, mess, l lived in cottage close by, from the open door of which looking eastward, 1 could see any coming train for mile away, and notice whether the signals of"dan- ger" or safety" were in their proper positions.
 One morning, just after the To- cal had made up and gone. my wife came running to me with an alarmed face.
 Our little girl was missing. She had seen her only few minutes before the departure of the train, and had made d nasty search for her as soon as she discovered her absence. She feared she knew not what.
 | calmed her with d few brief words, and, hurrying around to the station building, began q care tul examination of every possible place'where I deemed it likely the child might be. (She was only five years old) The search result ed in my finding her fast asleep on the sunny side of a pile of railroad ties, with her doll, half as large as herself, lying beside her.
 That night 1 had singular dream.
 thought l was in the middle oi d vast plain, through which stretch ed, broad and clear before me, the double track of d main line. Like ours, yet unlike, for every few rods could see open switches and blood.red signals, that gave me an agony of apprehension. As I looked again at the line, my eyes fell upon an object-a small form lying upon one of the rails. My child! With a mighty effort l awoke. turned over, and went to sleep, and dreamed the same thing again, with the addition that l seemed mounted on a winged horse and riding for life to close the swithes,
 Again I awoke, bathed in per spiration. and reused myself sutli' ciently to get mp and visit my It tie tlarling's crib, of course to hno her safe. walked the floor m my stocking feet for a while, look cd at the clock, and again turned in. to dream for the third time the same thing; to start suddenly and broadly awake, as If the volce which reused the Thane of CawdoI had hissed in my ear, as m ms, "sleep no more"
 To awake, and find the first eleam of the incoming day glow ing grayly on the eastern wall.
 However, a visit to all those switches-mine, not those of tht dream-a dash, headforemost, into